Holiday Sale Extended

Wow, it sure has been super busy at my house since Thanksgiving! We had a great meal and family get together, I hope all of you had the same. I think that was the least tense Thanksgiving in years lol, no bickering going on at all. I think everyone was just too stuffed! I hope everyone is ready for Christmas! No? Me neither lol and we are celebrating with my side of the family on Sunday ( oh my gosh I have 5 days, eek, I hope I get everything done in time!)

I have decided to extend my sale in my artfire shop until the 1st of the year. 10% off everything in my shop using coupon code Holidays1. I can't get anymore custom orders like the rings and some of the pendants done in time for Christmas though.

I sincerely wish each and every one a fabulous Christmas, with lots of love and joy, and happy, prosperous New Year!

Check out this great contest!

The Fire Divas are hosting an Introductory Jewelry Challenge! This challenge will be for jewelry designers who use artisan lampwork in their pieces. The winner of the Challenge will receive a beautiful group of Fire Divas' work. This is a wonderful chance for jewelry designers to show off their talents and get exposure!

Please click on the link below to get all the details & to enter: We love to see how designers use our creations, though for this 1st challenge, ANY artisan lampwwork beads will do as long as they're handmade.

http://firedivas.blogspot.com/2009/11/calling-all-desingers-introductory.html

Holiday Sale Starts

I am having a holiday sale starting Thanksgiving day and running until the 13th of December. Everything in my Artfire studio is on sale for 10% off. Enter the coupon code Holidays at check out and the 10% off will be taken off. Please note that if you want a custom order, I am currently at two weeks and my last day for Christmas shipping via first class mail is December 14th. After that I don't know if it will make it in time without a shipping upgrade or not. I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving if you are in the United States and that everyone has a wonderful holiday season no matter what part of the world you are in!

P.S. The coupon code won't be valid until Thursday!

Featured Artisan Willow Walker Designs

Today I am featuring another jewelry artisan (ya, I know, call me
crazy but her stuff rocks lol). She makes the most stunning fused glass items I couldn't resist. And I happen to know that she is having some great sales on some of her pieces at the moment so I thought I would share. Since I can't buy up the whole store myself (although I would like to try lol). Go visit her shop at Willow Walker Designs and get some of that Christmas shopping out of the way early! See you there!

Trade and Stay!

Come check out this great event! Trade and Stay on the Artfire forums. Open to all Artfire and Etsy shops Pro or Basic! Come trade for holiday gifts! Really simple and lots of shops are already participating! Come check it out!

Featured Artisan

I haven't done a featured artisan recently. Between the move from etsy to artfire, summer, and learning some new skills, and also working a bit more at the day job, I just haven't been that focused lol! Today, even though I don't sell on etsy anymore, I am going to feature an artist from etsy because her stuff is gorgeous, its inexpensive and would make a great gift for Christmas.

VINTAGE VERSES

Joy does these wonderful, handwritten calligraphy verses and hymns on sepia toned paper. They are truly beautiful works of art and more than reasonably priced. She is also happy to personalize any of these for you. What a wonderful gift these would make for Christmas. Please go check out her shop today!

Our Other Cat

Thought I would show of our other cat. His name is Drake and he is such a sweety. He is also one of the fattest cats I have seen lol. He is our other pound rescue. I brought home both Drake and Dragon on the same day although they are not from the same litter. Drake is about 2 weeks older than Dragon. I brought them home when they were about 8 and 6 weeks old. They are now about 6 years old. I don't know why he weighs so much, both cats get the same amt of dry food every day, they don't get table food and they don't get moist food. (Okay on Thanksgiving they do get turkey and on Christmas a tiny bit of ham). My guess is total lack of exercize and the fact that he is neutered. He is really just lazy. Dragon run around all the time and as you can see in previous posts about Dragon he is slim and trim. Short of chaining Drake to the treadmill I have about given up on trying to get him to be active. He is a really sweetheart thought and spends a good deal of time talking to us.

Downstairs Work Space

Okay here are the pictures of my other workspace. Affectionately known as the Cave lol! This is where I do all the lapidary, glass work and metal work. No pictures of the metal work set up at the moment since I use the same space for that as I do for the glass. Temporary, I just haven't gotten around to putting up the other table for the metal work. I now officially own one whole wall of the basement. I do get a lot of laundry done though lol! The first picture is the lapidary machine that I cut cabs on. This is the grinding and polishing part. The trim saw is in the garage and I go to the lapidary club and use the club slab saws when I need to make slabs. The other three are pics of the glass bead making set up and an idea of what the torch looks like when I am in front (actually behind but you see what I mean) the torch. This torch gets up to 1700 degrees. It really hurts if you forget where the flame is.

Pizza Anyone?

Apparently Dragon has decided that the leftovers belong to him.

My Work Space

I know that I am always fascinated by other peoples work spaces. I don't know, maybe I am just nosy lol! Anyway I thought I would give you a glimpse into my working life. I have two work spaces, one upstairs in the living room where I do my wire wrapping, bead weaving and the like. My husband bought me this massive desk at a yard sale
for $25. Mostly because that way I will sit and work and watch tv and still be able to spend time with him lol! Its huge, its heavy and I love it lol! I spent three months going through and organizing my bead stash. Its finally almost all done. I don't know how many containers I have but its a lot lol!

Nature

Nature at its finest. I really just like being out in it. Its nice to really just stop and enjoy the natural beauty of even the simplest things. It helps me relax, unwind and realize that a lot of what I am stressing about is simply not that important. Enjoy the pics!

Me and Hubby at the Park

I hate having my picture taken. Absolutely loathe the camera lol! Since having kids (almost 20 years now) I have always been a bit overweight. Enough to make me feel uncomfortable in my skin and always wishing that I was a little bit thinner. I haven't been terrible fond of shopping for clothes either. I was never really skinny but after the kids were born, skinny and I weren't even remotely acquainted, much less living on the same block lol! So any way, long story short, I quit smoking 6 yrs, 6 months and 17 days ago,(and yes I know to the hour lol) after smoking for 23 yrs and trying to quite for over 13. I was (and still am) very proud of myself. Of course I promptly put on another 10 (okay maybe 15) pounds. So I started walking (since I could now breathe). At first, I was lucky if I could walk two minutes at a brisk pace without gasping for air. I can now walk/ run two miles in 15 min if I push myself. Maybe not a lot to some but amazing thing for me, who was gasping for air after climbing the stairs to the second floor (mostly the cigarettes, not the weight). I am happy to report that my doctor says my lungs sound like I have never smoked. Yay me! However I was still pretty chubby. So last december I decided that if I didn't do it now it was never going to happen and I was never going to be comfortable in my skin. I have since lost 40lbs and am almost okay with having my picture taken. This picture was taken the 6th of September (Sunday). I still have about 30lbs to go. I am also stepping up the exercize program. The other picture is of my husband, who, I might add, eats like a horse and NEVER gains any weight. God bless him he has loved me all these years through thick and thing lol! And yes, pun intended.

New Coupon Codes At Artfire!

As many of you probably know by now Artfire has created the capability for shop owners to make coupon codes for their shops. This is a huge help for those of us who run the occasional special or might want to give people a chance to save some money. I am offering a one time coupon for anyone who visits my blog and would like to save a bit on a purchase. Simply type in BLOG in the appropriate area when checking out and receive a 10% discount on your entire order! Christmas is not THAT far off and this would be a good time to get some shopping done early. Also keep in mind that when shopping on line for Christmas (no matter who you shop from) you need to take into account the shipping time, which the closer it gets to Christmas the longer it usually takes lol! Also custom orders do start to stack up closer to Christmas so keep that in mind when ordering!

Enchanted Forest

While at the park I came upon a few things that reminded me of an enchanted forest, full of fairytale folks. What a grand adventure it would be if it really was enchanted! The possibilities of the first step down the hidden pathways of the forest, the secret hiding places of the littlest of folks! I wonder who lives in the purple ones?

More Lampwork

I have been practicing! Some I am happy with some not so much lol! But I will post them anyway so that I have a good record of my progress. These beads are at the the 5 to 10 hours at the torch mark. The almost clear ones are called cirrus. And the white ones have sangria brown as the dots. The yellow ones are some tries at encasing with clear and the yellow barrel shaped one and the funky shaped one are a shot at raking and encasing. Not too bad since it was first attempt. The blue bead is black encased in the palest of blue. I REALLY like this one! (of course I haven't been able to duplicate this but I will keep trying). Then some others using the same colors but the black is much more predominant. I like them, just not as much as the first one lol! And I think I am doing okay over all, mostly I am working on round, and dot placement with a tiny bit of lines and other stuff thrown in.

Our very own Nessie?

No not really lol! When my husband and I were at the state park we caught a glimpse of this blue heron diving for food. The only part of its body above water was the neck and head. It would dive under the water and disappear for about 3 to 4 minutes. We were holding our breath it was down so long each time! Then it would pop back up again 20 to 30 feet away. It had swum all that way without coming up for air. It was amazing! I had no idea they could stay under the water that long. It was a pretty neat thing to watch and kept us occupied for a good fifteen minutes before we finally lost sight of it.

Last Couple of Days Jewelry Sale!

Silver River Jewelry
Just a quick note that my 10% off sale will be over on the 1st of September, so if you have your eye on something in particular now is the time lol! Just click on the link or the picture!

What a Treadmill Is REALLY For

At least according to our cat Dragon. I couldn't resist these pictures, he looked so peaceful lol! Now if I could exercise like that and it would actually work (you notice how trim he is ?) I would be a happy camper!

The Rest Of Our Zoo Trip

So we are now moving on to the Northern Trek portion of our zoo visit. And trust me its definitely a trek lol! Uphill the whole way and it just kept getting hotter and stickier! So our first stop once we stopped gasping for air was the bald eagle. He was definitely a majestic bird and was almost close enough to touch. What a magnificent bird! Bonus, the gift shop was air conditioned by this exhibit lol! We didn't buy anything but we spent a half an hour cooling off, I mean browsing. We passed this white tailed deer wallowing in a mud hole. He looked a whole lot cooler and more comfortable that we were. (and yes I was hot enough to be tempted lol). Onward to the polar bear. I love polar bears, they are stunning animals and HUGE lol! Did you know that their fur is really clear not white or cream colored? This is my first trip to the zoo in years where he was actually up and moving. I hope you have enjoyed my trip to the zoo, we did see a bit more but skipped several parts due to the heat and the need to get home and do some of the to do list that we dumped to go to the zoo lol!

Work In Progress

I thought I would show you a time lapse kind of thing on one of my beaded necklaces. This is about 3 hours worth of work (with frequent interruptions by the dogs, the husband and the occasional blank stare at the TV lol) This is a bead necklace made with a St. Petersburg Chain weave using a needle and thread. I am using peachy seed beads as the base and man made coral bits dyed a pretty peach and peach dyed fresh water pearls as accents. The focal bead is an agate that is a creamy white with pale peach swirls in it. This turned out to be much more lacy and delicate than I had originally thought but I am really liking it. And the purple bead on the end is my stop bead, to keep my first couple of beads on the thread til it holds together on its own. I added about another two inches and had to stop. Once you are too tired to see the seed beads its time to put the needle down lol! I haven't had a chance to finish this one yet but sometime this week it will get done and the clasp will be added.